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Kathleen Williams, superintendent of the Wausau School District in Wisconsin, was subjected to a spate of threatening, mostly anonymous, phone calls and emails after the district limited the amount of religious music that holiday programs could have.

Some were full of invective and obscenities, Williams told the Daily Herald. One person called her at home and said she had a lot of trees in her yard and “wouldn’t I [Williams] look good hanging from one.”

Williams added, “The classic irony to me, is that all this ugly email, hoping I’m hurt, all is in the name of Christ.”

A motion at the Nov. 11 school board meeting to require Williams to write a letter of apology to the community failed 7-2.

She said the intent of the music review procedure was not to quash Christmas but to ensure all students felt comfortable in participating in music programs, whether they are Christian or not.

FFRF Staff Attorney Patrick Elliott sent a letter Oct. 10 to explain to the board why religious music in public schools is problematic. FFRF also sent an action alert urging area members to tell the board that the music curriculum shouldn’t make religion its primary focus.

Mass. taxes paying for church rehabs

Ten residents of Oak Bluffs, Mass., suing to block the town from using taxpayer money to restore stained glass windows at Trinity Methodist Church, were thwarted by Superior Court Associate Justice Richard Moses.

Moses ruled against the motion for a preliminary injunction, saying “there has been an insufficient showing of a likelihood of success on the merits.” Notice of the decision was mailed Nov. 25, reported the [Martha’s] Vineyard Gazette.

Oak Bluffs voters approved the $32,000 outlay at the April 2013 town meeting. The funds will come from the Community Preservation Act,

The town opposed the injunction, claiming the practice is common statewide: “The Massachusetts Historical Commission has funded at least 12 rehabilitation and restoration projects of historic churches since 2002.”

“We are deeply concerned that even Oregon elected officials are becoming hostile toward religious freedom,” Teresa Harke of Friends of Religious Freedom told The Oregonian. Harke is also communications director for the Oregon Family Council, a group opposing the proposed initiative to legalize same-sex marriage.

Jeana Frazzini, executive director of Basic Rights Oregon, said in a statement that “while we are all entitled to our religious beliefs, those beliefs don’t entitle any of us to discriminate against others, or disobey laws that are already in place to ensure that everyone is treated equally.”

Rachel Cryer and Laurel Bowman of Portland filed a complaint with the labor commissioner in August against Sweet Cakes by Melissa. Bakery owners Aaron and Melissa Klein have said they don’t want to provide services for same-sex weddings because of their religious beliefs.

In November, Hawaii and Illinois became the 15th and 16th states to legalize same-sex marriages. Twenty-nine states still have constitutional amendments banning them, and ballot challenges for 2014 and 2016 are being readied in Oregon, Arizona, Colorado, Michigan, Nevada and Ohio.

UCoR sues Pittsburgh for ad rejection

The United Coalition of Reason filed a lawsuit Nov. 26 against the Port Authority of Allegheny County, Pa., for initially accepting and then refusing to run $5,700 worth of bus ads in the Pittsburgh area that would have said, “Don’t believe in God? You are not alone.” The ads were scheduled to run from Dec. 12, 2011, to Jan. 11, 2012.

“We tried to support the Port Authority by buying ads,” said Nicole Currivan of Pittsburgh CoR. “I take the bus to work every day in my personal effort to support them. But we also want to be treated with the same fairness, dignity and respect as other groups. We just want the Port Authority to run our ads. We want nonbelievers to know they’re not alone.”

Judge won’t block church graduations

U.S. District Judge Ross Anderson Jr. denied a motion Dec. 3 for a preliminary injunction to block Greenville County schools in South Carolina from holding events in places of worship and allowing student-led prayer. Anderson said the American Humanist Association’s allegations made “a mountain out of a mole hill.”

According to the Greenville News, the judge also told an AHA attorney that “with all due respect and apologies,” he’d never heard of the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit founded in 1941.

The suit was filed Sept. 4 on behalf of John and Jane Doe and their minor child after Mountain View Elementary in Taylors held graduation in the chapel of North Greenville University, a Christian school. Two student speakers were asked to write a prayer for the ceremony, according to the suit.

Will Satanists get Capitol monument?

The New York-based Satanic Temple has asked state officials in Oklahoma to be allowed to submit designs for a monument to honor “the historic/literary Satan” to be placed near the Ten Commandments display at the Oklahoma City Capitol, The Associated Press reported Dec. 8.

Temple spokesman Lucien Greaves said one design involves a pentagram and another would be an interactive display for children. He estimated the cost at about $20,000.

A privately funded, $10,000 Ten Commandments marker was placed at the Capitol in 2012. The American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma is suing to get it removed.

Brady Henderson, ACLU-Oklahoma legal director, said the best solution would be to ban all religious displays. “But if the Ten Commandments, with its overtly Christian message, is allowed to stay at the Capitol, the Satanic Temple’s proposed monument cannot be rejected because of its different religious viewpoint.”

Cake OK for dog marriage, not gays

Judge Robert Spencer of the Colorado Office of Administrative Courts ruled Dec. 6 that Masterpiece Cakeshop in Lakewood unlawfully discriminated against David Mullins and Charlie Craig by refusing to sell them a wedding cake.

Masterpiece owner Jack Phillips allegedly told the couple that selling them a cake would be against his religious beliefs.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado said the decision noted evidence that Phillips was willing to take a cake order for the “marriage” of two dogs but not for the commitment ceremony of two women, and that he would not make a cake for a same-sex couple’s wedding celebration “just as he would not be willing to make a pedophile cake.”

Sara Neel, ACLU staff attorney, said, “Masterpiece Cakeshop has willfully and repeatedly considered itself above the law when it comes to discriminating against customers, and the state has rightly determined otherwise,”

Religious assemblies stopped in Miss.

The American Humanist Association and the Rankin County [Miss.] School District have settled a lawsuit filed in April over allegations that high school students were forced to attend a religious assembly. In a court filing Nov. 22 in U.S. District Court in Jackson, the school district agreed to comply with its Religion in Public Schools Policy adopted in July.

The suit was brought on behalf of a 16-year-old Northwest Rankin junior. A video provided to The Associated Press purportedly of the assembly showed a student talking about the role Jesus has played in his life. The suit described assembly presenters as representatives of Pinelake Church, the largest Southern Baptist church in Mississippi. The church denied taking part in the assembly.

What do nonbelievers do during the month of December in Sacramento, Calif.? They “come out of the closet” very publicly.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation and its new Sacramento chapter unveiled the largest freethought billboard campaign ever launched in one area: 55 affirmative billboards placed throughout California’s capital city and suburbs. The personalized billboards each feature the smiling face and unapologetically forthright view of an area nonbeliever.

The motto of the campaign is “Many faces make Enlightenment work.” More than 55 participants are actually involved, since some of the messages feature couples, friends or families.

Newlywed Judy Saint, chapter director, is featured with her wife, Kathy Johnson, saying: “Reason. Equality. Doing Good. — All without gods.” (See their billboard on opposite page.) They’re one of six featured couples.

Making the world better is a common theme. Other themes are believing in and trusting oneself and humanity (rather than a god), embracing healthy skepticism, promoting science and living, loving, being moral and doing good without god. As Sacramento teacher Liz Shoemaker, put it, “I believe in people, not gods.”

Some turn religious testimonials on their head, such as 20-year-old Reace Niles’ message of “I’m an atheist, and I’ve never been happier,” and Sacramento student Noel Navarro, who has a message for Oprah Winfrey: “I’m not a believer, and life is still awesome!”

Quilters and friends Karla Sprandel and Susan Myers, Sacramento secular humanists, show off their quilts and their philosophy: “No gods, no devils, no worries.” Other playful messages include Rancho Cordova homemaker Maggie Johns’ quip: “I don’t believe in Odin, either.”

While most participants self-identify as atheists, some prefer the description of agnostic, humanist or secular humanist. There’s even one “Pastafarian,” Sacramento tech support worker Elizabeth Porter, a devotee of the whimsical Flying Spaghetti Monster.

The 55 billboards became national news in late November, even before they went up. Nearly all reporters turned to religious leaders for comment. Sacramento Catholic Bishop Jaime Soto of the Cathredral of the Blessed Sacrament told Fox affiliate KTXL that the billboards were “propaganda.” One local imam called the affirmative messages an “attack” on his faith.

“We’re proud of our Sacramento chapter and its comfident membership,” said FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “We had to lease more boards from a second outdoor company just to keep up with the demand.”

Sacramento is the sixth city to which FFRF has taken its “out of the closet” public relations campaign. Previous cities include Madison, Wis. (where FFRF is based), Tulsa, Raleigh, Columbus, Phoenix and Spokane. A similar campaign also went up last year in Portland, Ore., featuring local freethinkers saying “I’m secular and I vote” and “This is what an atheist looks like.”

The campaign’s objective is to reveal to communities the diversity of nonbelievers within their ranks. “Many people have met, do business with and are friends with atheists — but don’t realize it,” Gaylor added.

It’s also a chance for freethinkers to openly express themselves. In December, Gaylor noted, the views of non-Christians, especially nonbelievers, are often suppressed. “Those of us who are free from religion, who work to keep dogma out of government, science, medicine and education, have a lot to offer society.”

FFRF, with nearly 20,000 members, has about 3,000 in California.

FFRF sends “awed thanks” to professional photographer Matt Martin, who volunteered his services, and is pictured on a board with his wife, Kimberley, who is also an atheist. Their message: “Integrity and compassion require no gods.”

FFRF also warmly thanks Judy Saint for superb coordination and energy, and all participants for making freethought history!

Critical thinking won a solid victory recently when faith-based speaker Justin Lookadoo was publicly berated for a presentation described as sexist that was given at Richardson High School in Richardson, Texas.

Students used social media to express their disapproval, adopting the hashtag #lookadouche when making statements about the misogynistic views portrayed in Lookadoo’s presentation. Subsequent to Lookadoo’s performance at Richardson, FFRF had sent open records requests to George West Independent School District and Canadian Independent School District, where Lookadoo was scheduled to perform on Nov. 19 and Dec. 11, respectively.

Both districts responded with information that Lookadoo’s performances had been canceled. Whether the districts will be refunded the money they paid (over $3,000 in the case of George West) remains to be seen. Until shortly after the Richardson fiasco, Lookadoo’s website also advertised performances early next year at Eagle Mountain Independent School District, Saginaw, Texas; Tonawanda Middle and High Schools, Tonawanda, N.Y.; various schools in Scottsboro, Ala.; and a student council conference at Lufkin High School in Lufkin, Texas.

“The chilling reality is that Lookadoo’s strategy of masquerading as an expert in order to disseminate his religious ideology to public school students is not unique,” noted Sam Grover, FFRF constitutional consultant. FFRF has received complaints about many “Lookadoo lookalikes” (no, Guy Fieri, we don’t mean you).

A number of religious groups go into schools under the guise of offering sex education, anti-drug and other secular programming. Once in the schools, these noncredentialed performers routinely insert a religious message into their talks or exploit the opportunity to speak before a captive audience to invite all students to a proselytizing evening program, usually held at a church.

FFRF has written letters about public school performances by the Christian ministry group You Can Run But You Cannot Hide (and the band Junkyard Prophet), Team Xtreme (part of Youth With A Mission), Team Impact (which also performed at Richardson ISD), The Power Team, Go Tell Ministries (with BMX biker Rick Gage), Christian hip hop musician Kryst Lyke, B-SHOC, Sons of Thunder, magician/motivational speaker Jason Alvarez (sponsored by Faith Assembly), and Youth Alive-7 Project (with Brian Pruitt Motivational), to name a few.

“It’s important that school districts remember their constitutional obligation to remain neutral toward religion and to properly research any performer before inviting them to speak before a captive student audience,” advised Grover.

Too often it falls to students to report violations and to be vocal in expressing their disagreement with messages being conveyed.

“FFRF has a homework assignment for school administrators: Perform due diligence when bringing speakers to public schools. A little homework can go a long way toward preventing Lookadoo-like disasters,” added FFRF Staff Attorney Patrick Elliott.

FFRF ends school’s ‘daily devotions’

Until October, Hokes Bluff High School in Etowah County, Ala., started mornings with student-led recitations of bible passages over the intercom, a practice approved by school administration. A concerned student reported the practice to FFRF, and Staff Attorney Andrew Seidel sent a letter Sept. 24 to Superintendent Alan Cosby.

“Nothing in the law prevents students, teachers or school employees from freely exercising their religion on their own time and in their own way,” wrote Seidel. “But a public school itself must not broadcast a decidedly religious message to a captive student audience, thereby isolating and excluding those students who are non-Christian or nonreligious.” FFRF has not received a reply directly from the district regarding the illegal readings, but the complainant informed us, “As of now they have not been doing ‘daily devotions.’ ”

No more ‘blessings’ at school meetings

FFRF successfully ended prayers during annual in-service meetings for transportation employees at the Berkeley County School District in South Carolina.

The complainant informed FFRF Staff Attorney Patrick Elliott that formal prayer had become a part of the mandatory event in the current and preceding years. Elliott addressed the unconstitutionality of the practice in an Oct. 24 letter to Superintendent Rodney Thompson: “The prayer at district in-service meetings appears to a reasonable observer to be an endorsement of religion, particularly Christianity. This is exactly the type of government endorsement that is prohibited by our Constitution’s Establishment Clause, and could also be perceived as workplace harassment.”

An attorney representing the district responded Nov. 19: “While there was no blessing or prayer offered as part of a program or included as a formal part of the in-service, an employee did offer a blessing for the food before the employees ate the meal. There was certainly no intent to offend any employees. Further, in order to avoid any misunderstandings in the future, the district will not offer a blessing before the meal.”

Chain stops discount for church bulletins

Luna’s Friendswood, a Mexican restaurant with six different locations in Texas, has stopped offering a 10% discount to dine-in customers who presented a current church bulletin on Sundays.

FFRF Staff Attorney Liz Cavell and constitutional consultant Sam Grover sent a letter Oct. 10 to the owner, explaining that under the federal Civil Rights Act, places of public accommodation are not allowed to discriminate on grounds such as race, color, religion or national origin.

“Your restaurants’ restrictive promotional practices favor religious customers, and deny both customers who do not attend church as well as nonbelievers the right to ‘full and equal’ enjoyment of Luna’s Friendswood,” FFRF’s letter said.

On Nov. 8, Luna’s responded, stating, “As of Nov. 4, this ‘discount’ has been eliminated.”

Ohio school strikes prayer after letter

FFRF advised the administration of Western Brown High School in Mount Orab, Ohio, to stop including prayers at school events after a concerned parent informed Staff Attorney Andrew Seidel that prayer was part of the National Honor Society induction ceremony earlier this year.

In his Oct. 3 letter to Superintendent Peggy McKinney, Seidel noted that prayer at any event endorsed by the school, regardless of whether it takes place before or after school, is illegal. “Federal courts consistently strike down school-sponsored prayer in public schools because it constitutes a government endorsement of religion, which violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment and interferes with the personal conscience of students.”

There were also allegations that the administration had discriminated against the Secular Student Alliance by delaying approval of an SSA chapter for more than six months and complaints that the Christian club received preferential treatment.

“As you are no doubt aware, the Equal Access Act requires schools to treat all noncurricular clubs equally,” warned Seidel.

While the administration denied any wrongdoing, legal counsel informed FFRF on Oct. 22 that the school has dropped prayers from the ceremony “in the interest of not having misleading programs or confusion in the future.”

The school claimed the delay in SSA approval was due to a “coincidental change” in administration and logistical inconvenience.

Just say ‘Aloha’ to football prayers

Prayers are dropped from pregame routine in Oregon high school (October 29, 2013)

The Aloha [Ore.] High School football team will no longer include prayers in its pregame routine, thanks to a concerned student who reported the practice to FFRF Staff Attorney Andrew Seidel.

Seidel sent a letter of complaint Oct. 25 to Superintendent Jeff Rose. “As a general matter, it is illegal for a public school to organize, sponsor, or lead religious messages at school athletic events,” noted Seidel.

The principal informed FFRF on Oct. 29 that the team has eliminated prayers and any faith-based rituals before games. The school is part of the Beaverton School District.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation calls on proponents of separation of state and church to boycott (and “girlcott”) Hobby Lobby, a national retail craft store chain. Hobby Lobby characterizes itself as a Christian company, with 561 stores, 21,000 employees and revenues of more than $2.28 billion a year.

Hobby Lobby’s website notes it’s committed to “Honoring the Lord in all we do by operating the company in a manner consistent with biblical principles.”

FFRF is calling the consumer boycott in response to Hobby Lobby’s religiously motivated role in challenging the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive mandate. The Supreme Court on Nov. 26 accepted a case involving Hobby Lobby, which opposes some forms of contraception based on the religious views of its founder David Green, a preacher’s son.

“The foundation of our business has been, and will continue to be strong values, and honoring the Lord in a manner consistent with biblical principles,” a statement on the Hobby Lobby website reads, adding that it closes on Sundays.

The 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals agreed with Hobby Lobby that corporations have the same religious rights as individuals. Other, more reasonable courts such as the 3rd Circuit, have held that “for-profit, secular corporations cannot engage in religious exercise” and that a business owner’s religious rights do not allow that owner to impose his religion on his business’s employees. That decision, Conestoga Wood Specialties Corp. v. Sebelius (3rd Cir., July 26, 2013), will also be reviewed by the Supreme Court

“Corporations don’t have a right of conscience, women do,” says Annie Laurie Gaylor, FFRF co-president. “As Margaret Sanger pointed out long ago, ‘No woman can call herself free who does not own and control her body. No woman can call herself free until she can choose consciously whether she will or will not be a mother.’ ”

Major medical groups submitted a brief on behalf of the government in the Hobby Lobby case, noting that the morning-after pill is not an abortion and cannot stop pregnancy after fertilization takes place, but instead prevents ovulation.

More than 70 lawsuits have been filed in federal court, at least a third by Roman Catholic dioceses, challenging birth control coverage benefits. FFRF spoke out strongly last year against the interference of U.S. Catholic bishops against the contraceptive mandate, running a full-page ad in The New York Times and several other newspapers, advising, “It’s time to quit the Catholic Church.”

On Nov. 1, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled 2-1 in favor of the Catholic owners of two Ohio produce companies who oppose the contraceptive mandate. Some of its delivery trucks bear signs saying, “It’s not a choice, it’s a child.” In the majority opinion, Judge Janice Rogers Brown, a George W. Bush appointee, said the company would be forced to be “complicit in a grave moral wrong.”

FFRF ran two dozen full-page newspaper ads this year countering Hobby Lobby’s annual disinformation campaign, in which it places hundreds of ads on July 4 claiming that America is a Christian nation. FFRF was censored by only one newspaper during that ad campaign, the Daily Oklahoman, which shares hometown “pride” with Hobby Lobby.

FFRF also fact-checked Hobby Lobby’s 2013 full-page ad. To view the interactive exposé researched by attorney Andrew Seidel and designed by Harvard Law School intern Charles Roslof, scroll to the Sept. 3, 2013, press release at:ffrf.org/news/news-releases.

“We ask other secular and feminist organizations to join us in speaking out against religious control of women’s bodies,” said FFRF Co-President Dan Barker. “Hobby Lobby needs to find a different hobby than imposing ‘biblical values’ on women employees.

Article (2): Islam is the state religion, and Arabic is its official language, and the principles of Islamic Sharia are the main source of legislation.

Section of proposed new Egyptian Constitution

Religion Clause, 12-8-13

So if there is enough evidence to warrant belief in the Quran or the works of L. Ron Hubbard or that Moses parted the Red Sea, we ought to believe those things. There isn’t sufficient evidence, and that’s why people invoke faith. You would not need to invoke faith if you have sufficient evidence.

Every day is a day that we’re full of life. We’re with our families, we see sunrises, sunsets. We eat, we breathe, we have art. It’s a total, total celebration of every single day. Calling someone who loves every day of their life “angry” seems a little bit odd.

Author Penn Jillette, rebutting a Chicago radio host who asked if Every Day Is An Atheist Holiday was an “angry” title

chicagoist.com, 11-9-13

In his book Profiles in Courage, John F. Kennedy talked about how important it is for public officials to educate public opinion rather than pander to public opinion that has not been informed by the facts. In this situation, the school board chose to pander to a boisterous crowd instead of educate them concerning the requirements of the U.S. Constitution. And now they have to pay a price — albeit with taxpayers’ dollars — for their foolish, cowardly, and illegal decision. (Taxpayers pay the district’s insurance premiums, which likely will go up at least in part because of the stupidity that the district has displayed in this matter.) The ACLU and the Freedom From Religion Foundation should be commended for upholding the law and the rights of religious minorities in this case. All blame should go to the school board and those who egged them on in their unlawful, intolerant, and hopeless course.

Online comment by J.C. Sommer on the successful suit to remove a Jesus portrait in a school in Jackson, Ohio

Columbus Dispatch, 11-30-13

First her pastor convinced her to quit her job to do full-time ministry at the church. Now the pastor is pressuring my wife to sow a financial seed into the ministry, which would mean tapping heavily into our savings.

Comment by “Sick of These Preachers” to “Ask Tamara: Pastor is Ruining My Marriage!”

Lee Bailey’s Electronic Urban Report, 11-4-13

It depends on your luck. You can be an atheist and tell people and nothing can happen to you. Or you can be fired from work, your life can be destroyed, acts of violence can be taken against you. It depends where you are, the circle of people around you. For me, the people at work don’t know. The people at school didn’t know. You have to keep your opinions to yourself. It’s a stressful situation.

Ayman Emam, 28, Cairo, who started the Egyptian Atheists Community on Facebook, on how atheists are threated

Al Jazeera, 11-18-13

During the service, attendees stomped their feet, clapped their hands and cheered as Jones and Evans led the group through rousing renditions of “Lean on Me,” “Here Comes the Sun” and other hits that took the place of gospel songs. Congregants dissolved into laughter at a get-to-know-you game that involved clapping and slapping the hands of the person next to them and applauded as members of the audience spoke about community service projects they had started in L.A.

News story on the Sunday Assembly, which envisions “a godless congregation in every town, city and village that wants one”

Associated Press, 11-11-13

You’re a good Catholic fellow as I am. That’s not the way Catholic people — that’s not the way anybody with morals — should do anything.

Statement at sentencing by Florida Judge Russell Healey which resulted in the appeals court ordering the defendant to be resentenced by a different judge

Florida Times-Union, 11-7-13

We were disappointed to learn that former President George W. Bush has decided to move ahead with his plan to speak at a fundraising event for an evangelical proselytizing group whose stated goal is to convert Jews to Christianity.

Abraham Foxman, Anti-Defamation League national director, on Bush’s speech to the Messianic Jewish Bible Institute in Dallas

Politico, 11-11-13

The bible does not specifically speak about sequester cuts, or any other fiscal proposal or funding law enacted by the U.S. Specific directions for tax policy are never spelled out in scripture.

Rob Schwarzwalder, Family Research Council vice president, “God and the IRS: What the bible can teach us about tax policy”

All politicians now have the moral obligation to work for the repeal of this sinful and objectionable legislation. We must pray for deliverance from this evil which has penetrated our state and our church.

Thomas Paprocki, bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Springfield, Ill., announcing he’ll offer “prayers of supplication and exorcism” Nov. 20, the day when Gov. Pat Quinn was scheduled to sign a same-sex marriage bill into law

State Journal-Register, 11-14-13

Paprocki might consider directing that exorcism toward his own heart. He might be surprised at what demons fly out.

Columnist Neil Steinberg, noting that 47% of Catholics attended Mass once a week in 1974 compared to 24% now

Chicago Sun-Times, 11-17-13

If I won the lottery and could afford to live in Manhattan, no one would care, but here, I can have an effect. Not to create more atheists, but to simply create a place that the secular can call home. I would never say that I am the answer for DeRidder [La.], but for this community I know I am the question.

Jerry DeWitt, former evangelical pastor who stayed in DeRidder to “minister” to atheists and the secular community

The Daily Beast, 11-17-13

I looked up the verse Jeff put on the bag [Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me”] and had to laugh. How can someone so smart be so gullible? The idea of trusting or believing that someone has control over your future is the definition of insanity. I will continue to trust people I’ve actually met to help chart my course.

If you want to do something about the climate, you want to do something about the weather, there is only one thing that we can do to affect climate or affect weather and that is to pray to Yahweh.

Bryan Fischer, American Family Association

“Focal Point With Bryan Fischer,” 9-13-13

[Los Angeles Cardinal Roger] Mahony and his aides insisted on secrecy even when lives were at risk. In one case, the archdiocese was informed that a man dying of AIDS had been having sex with a parish priest, who in turn was abusing high school students. At the time, the average life expectancy after an AIDS diagnosis was 18 months. Yet church officials did nothing to alert the priest or the students.

Newspaper story on cover-ups of sex abuse by clergy

Los Angeles Times, 12-1-13

I want to wish everyone a really, really merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah, all the holidays —all you infidel atheists out there, I want to wish you the very best also. I don’t know what you celebrate during the holiday season, I myself celebrate the birth of Christ, but it’s your choice, and I respect your choice. If you want to celebrate nothing, and just get together with friends, that’s good, too. All the best.

Brian Pallister, Conservative Party of Canada member, speaking in the Legislative Building

Winnipeg Free Press, 12-2-13

I’m sure that right-wing advocacy groups raise of a lot of money this time of year by hyping a fake war on Christmas. But the truth is that the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution already protects schoolchildren’s religious freedom — whether they are Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu or none of the above — and nothing that the Texas Legislature passes is going to improve on what the Founders gave us.

Terri Burke, executive director, American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, on the new Texas “Merry Christmas” law

The Freedom From Religion Foundation, a national state-church watchdog based in Madison, Wis., has scored another victory for secularism on public college campuses.

Late last year, FFRF persuaded the University of Wisconsin-Madison to remove Gideon bibles from the Lowell Center, its campus inn. Now it has likewise persuaded the Memorial Union at Iowa State University-Ames to remove bibles from its hotel rooms.

Richard S. Reynolds, director of the union, responded Feb. 13 by email: "The concern you raised about the availability of Bibles in the guest rooms of the Memorial Union has been taken under advisement and, effective March 1, 2014, the Bibles will be removed from the Hotel rooms."

FFRF received a complaint about the religious propaganda on state property from one of its Iowa members.

"It is a fundamental principle of Establishment Clause jurisprudence that a government entity cannot in any way promote, advance, or otherwise endorse religion," wrote Staff Attorney Patrick Elliott in FFRF's Jan. 29 letter to Reynolds. "If a state-run university has a policy of providing a Christian religious text to guests, that policy facilitates illegal endorsement of Christianity over other religions and over nonreligion. Permitting members of outside religious groups the privilege of placing their religious literature in public university guest rooms also constitutes state endorsement and advancement of religion.

"Individuals, not the state, must determine what religious texts are worth reading."

"We're delighted to see reason and the Constitution prevailing. We can all sleep easier knowing secularism is being honored at our public universities," said FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor.

"Many nonbelievers greatly object to its primitive and dangerous instructions to beat children, kill homosexuals, atheists and infidels," Gaylor added, "and that it sanctions the subjugation of women, who are scapegoated for bringing sin and death into the world.

"Imagine the uproar if someone found a Quran or Richard Dawkins' 'The God Delusion' in their state-supported hotel room. Government can't take sides on the religious debate."

FFRF, which has more than 20,000 members, represents nearly 150 Iowa members.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation, concerned about dangers to public health posed by ritual circumcision, has contacted New York state, local and national officials about the religious practice.

According to reports by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, ultra-orthodox Jewish parents are exposing newborns to herpes simplex virus infections by allowing adult men called mohels to place their mouths on boys' penises to draw blood away from the circumcision wound. At least two infants have died from the infection, two others have suffered brain damage, and other victims must deal with a chronic, lifelong infection that can cause painful lesions.

The "bris" or "brit milah" is traditionally done on the eighth day of life and is followed by a celebratory meal. Oral suction of the wound, "metzitzah b'peh," is limited to primarily Hasidic communities.

FFRF is a state-church watchdog based in Madison, Wis., with about 20,000 members nationwide and more than 1,100 in New York state. Staff Attorney Andrew Seidel wrote a letter Feb. 12 to several officials, including Mayor Bill de Blasio, District Attorney Cyrus Vance, heads of the state and city health departments and U.S. Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand and Charles Schumer.

"To put the seriousness of this infection in perspective, the reported cases show that a newborn infected with HSV by a mohel is seven times more likely to die than a climber attempting to summit Everest or a U.S. soldier fighting in World War I," Seidel wrote.

"Currently, the only regulation to protect children from this outrageous practice is informed parental consent. This must change. The government should stop placing adults' desire to impose their religion above the health, safety, and lives of defenseless infants," he said.

FFRF called on Vance to prosecute those responsible. "No person's religious rights would be hindered by prohibiting this criminal act. Without regulation, the helpless infants' rights are trampled in the name of a religion they cannot begin to grasp. Adults do not have a religious right to expose their children to disease and death."

Seidel noted that current state law bans knowingly transmitting an infectious venereal disease, endangering the welfare of the child and reckless endangerment. "The exceptions carved out for religion could be amended or these laws could actually be enforced."